First impressions

Smartphones are now more advanced than ever, but we seem to have hit a low in innovation - we're just getting a Company Phone N+1 handset released each year on schedule. This is why we were excited to meet the HTC One, the company broke every mold imaginable when designing it.

HTC One

The display is smaller to the benefit of ergonomics instead of trying to impress by numbers and is one of the best mobile screens around. The 4MP camera isn't keen either to play the "more is better" game, though we're yet to be convinced that this gamble will pay off.

Either way, HTC Zoe will probably get more attention than the raw image quality. It packs more features than any stock gallery or even app from the Play Store and the simplicity with which it creates complex effects is bound to draw crowds (the simple photo filters of Instagram have brought together a community of over 100 million).

HTC took their creative hammer to Android too - instead of being yet another prettified version of the Android UI, Sense 5 tries to whet the modern user's appetite for info with BlinkFeed and get in on the gesture craze. These are features though, that are yet to prove their worth.

Having earned a reputation for its Beats audio enhancements, HTC now pushes the envelope further the front-mounted BoomSound stereo speakers and the HDR mics for better voice calls.

Technological innovation is great, it's exciting, but sometimes it puts off the general consumer with the compromises it involves (e.g. the size and aging OS of the Nokia 808 PureView).

With the HTC One, however, the Taiwanese may have struck gold - even if you can't explain what UltraPixels are to someone, show them the Zoe highlights videos and they'll be sold, more so when you tell them you didn't actually have to do anything to create the video.

We'll be back with a full review of the HTC One along with proper battery tests. Even then we'll have to leave one value for you to measure - how bad do you want it?